I have heard of this forum for a while now, however I'm not a forum person as much as I used to be so I registered with the intent of learning more but after some technical issues with passwords and the such just gave up. I recently was turned back onto this forum from Andrew Harto and Victoria of the Los Angeles Tea club on Facebook and through the group Puh-erh tea club.

My tea story starts when I was a year old. I was born in Sri-Lanka and came to the US when I was a year old. My grandmother owns a small tea plantation and makes black silver tips tea or just regular fannings. When I became a year old the first thing my dad gave me (like he did with my brother) was a sip of Ceylon black tea, straight no cream or sugar. This was not only a rite of passage but also he wanted us to have tea the way it was meant, straight no fillers. My brother did not catch on and just drinks tea today as a beverage, I on the other hand became a purist . I regard tea as fine wine. I think thanks to my dad's influence I despise teas that are either blends, have weird and trendyish names like "monkey picked" or "wild phoenix honey power" or things like that and especially ones that are described as being "super rare picked only during the suns rays hitting the leaves" or anything exuberant as such I can't ever shop at any place that is like Teavana, or coffee bean and tea leaf. Due to this sadly the only place I can really shop for that is near me is tea habitat. I have just gotten into learning gong fu as well as finding the perfect chaou-zhou and yxing clay tea pots. Im open to learning what to buy and what not to and to learn the ins and outs of them

My passion these days seems to be oolongs particularly ball rolled, and dan chong. I am currently looking for the perfect Anxi ti quan yin as well as learning more about puh-erh (i.e. which one is best, what to avoid etc.)

Teahorder wrote:
I have heard of this forum for a while now, however I'm not a forum person as much as I used to be so I registered with the intent of learning more but after some technical issues with passwords and the such just gave up. I recently was turned back onto this forum from Andrew Harto and Victoria of the Los Angeles Tea club on Facebook and through the group Puh-erh tea club.

My tea story starts when I was a year old. I was born in Sri-Lanka and came to the US when I was a year old. My grandmother owns a small tea plantation and makes black silver tips tea or just regular fannings. When I became a year old the first thing my dad gave me (like he did with my brother) was a sip of Ceylon black tea, straight no cream or sugar. This was not only a rite of passage but also he wanted us to have tea the way it was meant, straight no fillers. My brother did not catch on and just drinks tea today as a beverage, I on the other hand became a purist . I regard tea as fine wine. I think thanks to my dad's influence I despise teas that are either blends, have weird and trendyish names like "monkey picked" or "wild phoenix honey power" or things like that and especially ones that are described as being "super rare picked only during the suns rays hitting the leaves" or anything exuberant as such I can't ever shop at any place that is like Teavana, or coffee bean and tea leaf. Due to this sadly the only place I can really shop for that is near me is tea habitat. I have just gotten into learning gong fu as well as finding the perfect chaou-zhou and yxing clay tea pots. Im open to learning what to buy and what not to and to learn the ins and outs of them

My passion these days seems to be oolongs particularly ball rolled, and dan chong. I am currently looking for the perfect Anxi ti quan yin as well as learning more about puh-erh (i.e. which one is best, what to avoid etc.)

looking forward to learning and sharing!

Hey there. My knowledge is confined to South Asian teas, which is what I source and sell. But if you are looking for good feedback on Chinese/Japanese/Taiwanese teas, my suggestion would be to check out the Tea subreddit on Reddit. There is a plethora of knowledge on pu erh teas, Taiwanese oolongs, and pretty much any other tea you can think off. And I have found the people to be very responsive and educated, though sadly for me, the conversations are very focused on Chinese/Taiwanese/Japanese teas and less on South Asian teas. But if you have questions about what to buy, from where, etc., that is the place to be!